Soca - what is it?? - RFI

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i keep seeing soca cds in the carribean section when i go looking for joseph spence.

they got some fine lil honeys on the cover. what kinda music is it.

― JasonD (JasonD), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

It's great!

Except I've never got round to buying a whole CD (theyre all very pricey on import and the ones that aren't look k-dodgy, like Ian Levine Northern Soul comps) but all the tunes I randomly download are excellent.

It's like very fast, very pop-tastic dancehall, to give a very glib description.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the best description I ever heard for soca was when Simon Reynolds called it "the happy hardcore of the Caribbean." Very high energy calypso. Some of it is similar to dancehall. I really only know it from local Caribbean/reggae radio programs, so I'm afraid I can't recommend anything in particular.

― Jeff Sumner (Jeff Sumner), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 22:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The name came from soul calypso - a punchier, deeper version of the old calypso. Very danceable, and with some terrific singers and songs. Best of it is from Barbados, I think, though Trinidad is strong too. Search Grynner, Gabby, David Rudder, Tambu.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

we were talking about this on another thread the other day - i really like simon r's "happy hardcore of the carribbean" description - was quite taken with it, but would have been more taken with it if it were true! soca's a modern variant on calypso - speeded up, digitized andtwisted around... i love this stuff - it's wicked party music and more fun than a lot of dancehall (my big love)... a lot of it has heavily influenced certain strains of UK garage, too... was listening to a great soca show a couple of nights ago on pirate radio in london and it seems that a lot more hyperproduced r&b/techy influences have filtered thru to the genre in just the way that producers like timbaland have influenced dancehall and vice versa... geographically martin's OTM and I can't better the names quoted either... but don't be scared of soca comps looking shit, the worse the cover the better the record in many cases... aesthetic prejudices are best discarded in this instance...

― Dave Stelfox, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

No it wasn't the covers, it was the way they said 'various artists' but half the tunes were by the same person or produced/written by them - like I say it just screamed "Ian Levine" to me.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Caribbean happy hardcore is about right.

The soca gold compilations are as good a place as any to start. Artist wise look out for:

Maga Dan
Bunji Garlin
Burning Flames
Lima Calbio
Krossfyah

Turn it up loud with lots of base and set your ears to euphemism.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Also

Iwer George.

80% of soca is about sex in some way (this Iwer grorge track is nimally called tracktor licence), but its about sex.

The other 20% is about other things but full of oblique sexual references.

Its much less mysogynistic than ragga/dancehall if only because female artists are a lot more prominent and give as good as they get.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry, add Xtatik to that list.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I bought Soca Leaders at lunchtime. Good stuff!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

This seems like a good article about it (with an emphasis on its current position in the marketplace), though I know very little, so don't have much to go on.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 04:31 (twenty years ago)

Just for an easy universal point of reference, in case there are others who don't know what this genre is, the song "Hot Hot Hot" (which exists in about 50 different versions) is a straightforward, mainstream early soca hit.

― Vornado (Vornado), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

"who let the dogs out" is soca isn't it?

― fruitylapse, Wednesday, 16 February 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

The original was, but the cover that made the charts is rather less so.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

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Soca - what is it?? - RFI - S/D